Brazil’s Petrobras unveiled one of the world’s biggest share offerings on Friday, a sale of up to US$64 billion in new stock to finance oil exploration aimed at turning Brazil into a leading oil exporter of the 21st century.
The transaction could be expanded to US$74 billion if there was heavy demand, the state-run company said.
The cash serves as the core of an ambitious plan Petrobras has already outlined to boost capital expenditure over the next five years to US$224 billion as it seeks to tap potentially vast oil reserves discovered recently off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.
PHOTO: EPA
The US$64 billion dollar target for the new share offer represents a more than 40 percent increase in the company’s capital, which on Thursday was estimated at US$150 billion.
Petrobras’s share prices rose nearly 5 percent during trading in Sao Paulo after the announcement, confirming investor confidence in the issuance and Brazil’s outlook generally.
Analysts’ predictions that the market could balk at the high price Petrobras has agreed to pay the government for new reserves in an oil-for-shares transaction seemed confounded, at least initially.
The offer would see 2.1 million common shares and 1.5 million preferred shares issued, the company said in a statement. The price of the new shares would be given Sept. 23.
Existing shareholders — including the government — will have first access to the bulk of the shares.
Petrobras estimates so-called subsalt fields offshore could more than triple its existing proven oil reserves of 14 billion barrels, catapulting Brazil into the top league of OPEC nations. Brazil is not a member of OPEC.
However, to get at the oil, Petrobras will have to overcome a series of costly technological challenges unprecedented in the oil industry. The company, a world leader in deepwater oil exploration, is confident it will be able to do so.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
RSS